Judgement

I want to start off by saying that this has been written completely without the assistance of AI (ChatGPT or the like) – it’s based on my lived and observed experiences of collaborative project-based learning. I thought it important to say this because there’s so much worry and suspicion floating around at the moment about the extent to which it might take the place of our own critical thinking. What you get here is the real me doing some critical thinking of my own…

Judgement is something most of us probably (like to) think we are pretty good at. It’s certainly something that we know we need to be good at when we’re working in a team situation – the last thing we want is to have the rest of the team not happy with our judgement, especially if it happens more than once. The logical part of our brain knows we should be focused on the project but, depending on what our relationships are like within the team, there’s another part of our brain that’s ready for exactly that to happen, and another part that’s secretly worried (if we experience Imposter Sundrome – see my last two blog posts for my thinking on that) our judgement really might not be up to the mark.

I’ve attended webinars, read articles and blog posts by people much more involved with AI developments than I am; many connected with education, but many also not. If I put aside those who think that AI might be on the verge of being an existential threat to humanity, one common theme strikes me about working collaboratively: there’s no substitute for human judgement that’s based on critical thinking and yet still treats as valid those intuitive leaps in thinking that might be easier to make than to justify.

If your judgement is poor – that is, the outcome is negative – the experience forms the basis of better future judgement if the individual is open to a Learning Moment and prepared to change. If your judgement is good – that is, the outcome is positive – the experience forms the basis of even better future judgement if the individual is open to a Learning Moment and prepared to change. The change from good judgement might be more incremental than radical, but the possibility should always exist. Judgment can also be situational – poor in some situations and good in others.

The critical point, to me, is that the most valuable development of good judgement doesn’t come from learning the theory about it in all the other courses that lead up to a typical collaborative capstone project at the end of a qualification – it comes from the overall project itself. That’s not to say that learning the theory, and critiquing the judgement of others through assignments isn’t valuable, because it is. Where the courses leading to a capstone often live in quite discrete silos, learners may see their development of judgement as existing in those discrete contexts as well. When this happens, moving from situations where the outcomes are already known and the options predictable to ones where the problems are wicked and there aren’t necessarily any `right` answers is a serious test of judgement skills.

Add to that making judgements for real about who’s likely to be the best `fit` as team members, being able to work collegially with them, measuring their performance, and justifying those decisions – the theory is only a guide to learners’ lived experience. Add to that learners having to answer the same questions about themselves, and the criticality of developing good judgement skills becomes obvious.

In set assignments or even simulations learners usually have the luxury of time to critique what has already happened. Maybe they can synthesise information about the circumstances from multiple sources, but the consequences of poor judgement are often little more than a poor assignment mark. When the project is wicked, the people being collaborated with aren’t necessarily carbon copies of themselves, and solutions many and varied, the luxury of time to critique in depth may not be available, and the consequences of poor judgement may be more significant than just a low assignment mark.

Something that needs thinking about is the extent to which learners judge each other’s judgements in the team by how similar they are to the judgements they made (or would have made). I would argue – because I’ve seen and experienced it so many times – that judgements which are made mainly because of a perception other team members will like them are usually poor judgements. Working on projects, leading projects – these roles aren’t (or shouldn’t be) a popularity contest. They are about getting things done that solve wicked problems in creative and appropriate ways, where making different judgements isn’t the same as making wrong judgements.

Several questions that have long intrigued me – because I’ve been an employee, a manager and a leader in diverse industries and organisations – are these:

• Are judgements used as punishment opportunities or learning moments?
• Is the traditional capstone collaborative project the most effective way of developing judgement skill and experience?

Lived and observed experience with various prerequisite courses and a series of capstone projects in multiple specialisations suggests the double-edged sword of poor and good judgement can be honed to a good edge by expanding the scope of the collaborative learning project. My current doctoral research project attempts to answer these questions starting with the LAMB CHOPS and MINT SAUCE model, which I’m now integrating with the CHIP project model. Yes, it’s going into a much more wicked space than the traditional relatively small capstone project at the end of a qualification, but I strongly believe that bigger opportunities to practice and experience the outcomes of wicked judgements will lead to learners being able to deliver better project outcomes.

I’m interested in learning about your thinking on this topic because it’s through collaborative conversations that we can create even more valuable learning and development experiences. Please do respond with a comment and let me know what you think.

In my next blog on Thursday 15 June, I’m going to talk more about how LAMB CHOPS, MINT SAUCE and CHIPS can help empower learners to carry the sharp sword of good judgement rather than the blunt sword of poor judgement.